Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/292

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

. II. OCT. 8, '93.

Messrs. Napier and Stevenson ('Crawford Charters,' pp. 51, 68) have the following remarks :

" The name Lilla[m Lilian broc] is not uncommon in the charters, which record a Lilian hlcewes crundel ('C. S.,' iii. 174 s, 2S7 29 ), a Lilian hnjcg (ibid., iii. 309 16 ), a Lilan mere (ibid., ii. 118 26 ), and a Lilian ivelle (ibid., ii. 205 6 ). This name is immortalized by the heroic devotion of the Northumbrian thegn of this name (Bseda, ' Hist. Eccl.,' ii. c. 9). It belongs to an unexplained class of Germanic personal names, which are characterized by the initial consonant being doubled after an intermediate vowel. They usually end with the hypocoristic suffix -a. The vowels of the root syllable are not regulated by the laws of ablaut. Instances of such names are: Bcebba, Bebb, Bibba, Bobba, Bubba ; Dodda, Didda, Dudda ; Lilla, Lidla ; Nunna ; Pibba, Pippa ; Tetta, Titta, Tot, Totta. As the great majority of these names occur only in hypocoristic forms, it is evident that they are not proper name -steins. Possibly some of these are formed by regressive assimilation, just as we form Bob from Robert."

The value of this note to students of nomenclature must be my apology for quot- ing it at length. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

.—On p. 488 of 'The Coins of the Ancient Britons,' by John Evans (London, 1890), the author, referring to the coin-legend Bodvoc, says, "No fresh light has been thrown upon the meaning of this legend." Has it not been suggested that it comes from the Keltic, meaning victor, conqueror, by which the name Boadicea has also been explained?

GRACECHURCH STREET. Among the lands and tenements within the City of London which Sir Kobert Knowles, Knt., demised (by his will dated 3 October, 1389, enrolled 1408) to the master or warden and chaplains of the house of the chantry or college commonly called " Knollesalmeshows," in the vill of Pontefract, in the diocese of York, was a hostel called " le Kaye " in Graschirchestrete, with shops in the parish of All Hallows de Grascherche. This hotel, from its descrip- tion, would seem to have been an early pre- cursor of the " Cross Keys." W. D. PINK.

Leigh, Lancashire.

" CEILING " OR " CIELING." It seems a strange proceeding on the part of the revisers of the Old Testament to have per- petuated the spelling "cieling" (e. g., 1 Kings yi. 15), which, except for one or two passages in the A.V., has long been obsolete among English writers. PERTINAX.

^ SHAKSPEARE'S WELSHMEN. I suppose that Shakspeare may be trusted to have had some authority from observation of men whom he had met for the style of speech which he

attributes to Fluellen and Parson Evans. Here are specimens of some points; there may be others which I have missed.

1. Prolix multiplication of words in de- scription of one and the same thing :

Fluellen. Fortune is turning and inconstant and mutability and variation.

Evans. His nurse or his dry nurse or his cook or his laundry, his washer and his wringer.

2. Fondness for a plural or for final sibila- tion :

Fluellen. In his rages and his furies and his wraths and his cholers, and his moods and his displeasures and his indignations, and also peing a little intoxi- cates in his prains.

Evans. 'Oman, art thou lunatics? Thou art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires.

3. An odd use of the noun for adjective or verb, or of abstract noun for concrete. Evans says, " I will description the matter to you if you be capacity of it." " Can you affection the woman ? " " Ann Page, which is pretty virginity." " Ods plessed will, I will not pe absence at the grace." This is less marked in Fluellen, though we have "inconstant and mutability and variation," as above quoted.

4. Such recurring words as "look you," " peradventure," common to both ; " pibbles and pabbles," " prawls and prabbles " (Fluel- len) ; " pribbles and prabbles " (Evans).

In ' Roderick Random ' Smollett has intro- duced a Welshman, Morgan the Surgeon, who talks like Fluellen and Evans, e.g., "I spoke by metaphor and parable and com- parison and types." But the copying is obvious ; we have the " look you " and the "peradventure"; and as Fluellen called Pistol " scurvy lousy knave," so Morgan must call some one " a lousy beggarly knave." Smol- lett's evidence, therefore, is quite worthless as to the manner of Welshmen's talk in the last century.

The question remains, How much of all this is real, how much of it due to Shak- speare's imagination or invention 1 Was this style of speech, with its tricks and catch- words, at any time generally characteristic of Welshmen; and is there any sort of ap- pearance that they are apt to talk thus still?

C. B. MOUNT.

CONVERSATION OP SHAKSPEARE. It has not infrequently been remarked by the intimate acquaintances of our great con- versationalists that, stimulating and enthral- ling as was the talk poured forth, they were at times wearied by its volume and persistency. One who had the advantage of the personal acquaintance of Shakespeare and was well able to appreciate him seems to have felt this if, indeed, what he says has reference to the